A special education legal resource discussing case law, news, practical advocacy advice, and developments in state and federal laws, statutes and regulations. Postings include insight and sometimes humor from Charles P. Fox, a Chicago, Illinois attorney who is also a parent of child with special needs, and other guest authors. Email: [email protected]

April 24, 2008

It is time that we make our voices heard in C0ngress. The following pending bill is one in a series of measures to overturn ill conceived and damaging Supreme Court decisions that have harmed the rights of parents.

PLEASE CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES (202-224-3121)ON TUESDAY, MAY 6, AND ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR THE IDEA FAIRNESS RESTORATION ACT, H.R. 4188. This bill will allow parents who prevail in due process or litigation under IDEA recover their expert witness fees. Few parents can afford the thousands of dollars needed to pay for expert testimony.

School districts use tax dollars to employ and pay for psychologists and other paid experts at IEP meetings and hearings. Parents have fewer resources and yet must bear a greater financial burden. H.R. 4188 is important to help level the playing field for the nearly 7 million children with disabilities. Introduced by Congressman Chris Van Hollen (Maryland) and Pete Sessions (Texas), it will restore Congress’ original intent and allow parents to recover their expert fees.

Over 100 disability organizations, including the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities, Arc, Easter Seals, the Council of Parent Attorneys & Advocates, Inc., National Disability Rights Network, National Down Syndrome Society, National Down Syndrome Congress, Learning Disabilities Association, National Center for Learning Disabilities, CHADD, and others support H.R. 4188. But we need your help to get it passed.

Call to Action - Tuesday, May 6, 2008

On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, please call your Congressional Representatives (202-224-3121) and ask them to cosponsor H.R. 4188, the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. Have friends and family members call. It will only take 2-3 minutes! Please join us for this national call-in day, May 6.

If you do not know who your Congressional Representative is, go to http://www.house.gov and put your zip code into the box in the upper left corner. (You usually only need your five digit zip code.) You can also use http://www.congress.org to look up Representatives and phone numbers. PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES INSTEAD OF USING EMAIL.

It helps if you ask for the Education Aide, but you can also talk to the person who answers the phone. You can also leave a voicemail message. Tell them you are a constituent and would like the Congressperson to co-sponsor H.R. 4188, the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. Congress needs to hear from as many parents, advocates, attorneys, and others as possible.

Please make a phone call on May 6, even if you've made one before. We want Congress to hear from parents and advocates for children, and one way we can make sure they hear us is to call them. If you can’t call on May 6, it’s okay to call afterwards. Ask your friends and family to call, too. Congress needs to hear from all of us!

The IDEA Fairness Restoration Act would override the Supreme Court's decision in Arlington Central School District v. Murphy (2006) and allow parents who prevail in due process or litigation to be reimbursed for their expert witness fees. H.R. 4188 is important to level the playing field and protect the rights of the 7 million children with disabilities.

When prevailing parents cannot recover expert costs, the playing field is neither level nor fair, and children are denied a free appropriate public education and other fundamental IDEA rights.

Hiring qualified medical, technical, and other expert witnesses can cost many thousands of dollars. Few parents can afford this high cost, putting due process out of reach for most parents, who struggle to afford what their children with disabilities need.

School districts use tax dollars to pay for psychologists and other paid experts. Parents have fewer resources and yet must bear a greater financial burden. Approximately 36% of children with disabilities live in families earning less than $25,000 a year; over 2/3 earn less than $50,000 a year.

Congress intended for parents to recover their expert witness fees in the Handicapped Children's Protection Act of 1986. Allowing parents to recoup their expert fees simply restores Congress' original intent.

If due process is not affordable, the IEP process becomes even more one-sided and unfair. School personnel control the IEP process and often vastly outnumber parents. When the right to due process is meaningful, it helps ensure that school districts provide appropriate educations to children with disabilities.

Most parents turn to due process and litigation only as a last resort. In 2003, the GAO reported that there were only 5 hearings per 10,000 special education students. But when parents are forced into due process, they should be able to afford expert witnesses.

For more information about H.R. 4188 and this alert, please contact Bob Berlow and Jess Butler of COPAA at [email protected] Together, we can make the difference and restore a balanced playing field for children with disabilities.